I hope to keep a more accurate log of
our motorcycle rides and RV adventures as well as just plain ole life events.
I have always written the rides down in
a book, but now hope to keep the information
on the blog. I may from time to time add life moments about our family as well.

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Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Which Way To The Quarry 2017

Seems there are a lot of mountains in Arizona...hence there are a lot of rocks!!!
Great deduction you say....well, yes it was.

As our little piece of Arizona become more and more personal, we have made some nice improvements on it, but of course there can always be more, right!

As we walk around the lots in the park I have noticed quite a few beautiful turquoise colored rocks.
I have asked around where they are finding these, and the standard answer is "The Quarry".

Now that we have the Jeep, it would seem to be fitting to go to the Quarry, but where is it?

One evening at a block party we were talking to some friends and Mark of Mark and Martha speaks up and says, "if you want to go to the quarry, we can take you".
Words I have longed to hear....finally someone is taking pitty on me and going to make my day and show us the way to this abandoned Quarry!!!!!

I am here to tell you, I am not the only one interested because by the time the day arrives to go to the said quarry, we have 4 vehicles making the first trip.
You note that I say "first trip"....LOL

We follow Mark and make our way through Coolidge, AZ. and head towards Eloy, AZ.

We have to make a stop in Coolidge and get air for one of our tires that is showing it is low.
Oh no, is our day to the Quarry going to be ruined!!!!

We are going to go ahead and attempt to get there and back.
What is the worst that can happen?
We can have a flat out in the middle of the desert and change a tire...right!

Before we get to Eloy, we make a left turn and head towards the mountains.
We travel at a snails pace across the dirt roads and pass a few cattle crossings and even see a few cattle along the way.
The rule is in Arizona, if you go through a gate that is open, leave it open.
If it is closed, go through and close it behind you.
Chuck and I are the last vehicle, so he gets out and closes them.
Such an interesting thing...to be on Bureau of Land Management land, or land owned by the State of Arizona.
The state owns a whole lot of the land, and the ranchers just lease it from the state.

The day is nice and we open all the windows and take in all the desert can give us.
The road narrows, and we make our way to the Quarry.
Since Mark and Martha have been here several times, they instruct us on where to park.

Jerry decides to drive around to the other side of the quarry, so we follow.
We end up right in the bowl of the quarry...where all the loading was done when it was an active place.
We then proceed to pick out some really cool rocks that will live out the rest of their lives in our yard.

It doesn't take Chuck and I long to fill up our 5 gallon buckets with some really nice pieces. We have gotten about all we can carry and Konni comes out of an area and says she has found a lot of the turquoise colored rocks I had wanted.

Of course we have to check it out, and sure enough there are some really pretty rocks to be taken.
After we rearrange a bucket, we have some of the beauties I had been looking for.

Don, Donna, Jerry, Konni, Mark and Martha have gotten their rocks as well, so we start the trek back to the highway.

My cell phone is not working very well at all, and I had missed a few text messages from Martha, but she called and I was able to talk to her.She asked if we wanted to stop at the Petroglyphs...Sure, why not!!!!

Not sure that I had ever really seen any petroglyphs up close and personal.
There was a couple of people walking around so I asked if they minded taking our picture.
We all enjoyed the little extra excursion to an interesting area in the mountains.

We are all getting hungry, so we make our way to the Gallopin Goose in Coolidge, AZ. for lunch.
I had mentioned the Bloody Mary's we had a few weeks back from there, so it was Bloody Mary's for all my friends except Mark.
He doesn't do tomato juice of any kind!!!!

The drinks were wonderful, and the home made chips that we had with salsa were really good.
Our waitress had NO personality, but she wasn't going to stop this group from having a fun time!

Our food took forever.
Debbie Downer our waitress just got worse and worse.
It is a good thing we were all in a good mood, but I can truly say she just blew her nice tip with this group.

The food was just so so, and probably won't be back to the Gallopin Goose anytime soon!

Back home we all unload our rocks and smile at our accomplishment of the day!
I am so ready to do this again!!!!
Any takers?